The Vatican Information Service is a news service, founded in the Holy See Press Office, that provides information about the Magisterium and the pastoral activities of the Holy Father and the Roman Curia...[+]

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Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Vatican City, 17 November 2015 (VIS) –
The Holy See Press Office today announced that, following an
invitation from the Chief Rabbi and Jewish Community of Rome, Pope
Francis will pay a visit to the Great Synagogue in the afternoon of
Sunday 17 January 2016. It will be the third visit by a Pope to the
Great Synagogue of Rome, following John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

The visit will take the form of a
personal encounter between the Pope and the representatives of
Judaism and the members of the Community. A more detailed programme
of the visit will be published in due course.

Vatican City, 17 November 2015 (VIS) –
This morning, in the Holy See Press Office, a press conference was
held to present the 30th International Conference organised by the
Pontifical Council for Health Care Pastoral on the theme “The
culture of Salus and welcome at the service of man and the planet”
(Vatican City, 19-21 November).

The speakers at the conference were
Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, president of the Pontifical Council for
Health Care Workers (for Health Pastoral Care); Msgr. Jean-Marie Mate
Musivi Mupendawatu and Fr. Augusto Chendi, M.I., respectively
secretary and under-secretary of the same dicastery; Dr. Antonio
Maria Pasciuto, president of the Italian Association for
Environmental Medicine and Health, Italy; and Dr. Lilian Corra,
president of the Argentine Association of Doctors for the
Environment, Argentina.

Archbishop Zimowski explained that the
Conference is inspired by Pope Francis' encyclical “Laudato si'”,
and seeks to identify methods and indications for a pastoral response
to the needs, in many cases urgent, expressed in the document. He
also noted the event's proximity to the climate conference in Paris
and the opening of the Jubilee Year, which will offer an opportunity
to reflect on love for others and for the Lord's work. In addition,
this year the Pontifical Council celebrates the 30th anniversary of
its establishment and the 20th anniversary of John Paul II's
encyclical Evangelium Vitae.

The profound bond between the world of
sickness and healthcare with the Mother of Jesus, as shown in the
celebration of World Day of the Sick on 11 February, the liturgical
memory of Our Lady of Lourdes, also inspires the theme of this Day in
2016, to be celebrated in Nazareth on the theme “Entrusting oneself
to the merciful Jesus like Mary: do whatever he tells you”.

The president of the Pontifical Council
for Health Care Workers (Health Pastoral Care) reported that the 30th
International Conference will be attended by 500 people from around
60 countries of the five continents: Angola, Argentina, Australia,
Bangladesh, Belgium, Benin, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Burkina Faso,
Burundi, Cameroon, Canada, Colombia, the Republic of Congo, the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, the
Dominican Republic, Eritrea, France, Georgia, Ghana, Greece, Haiti,
India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Lebanon, Malta, Mexico, Monaco,
Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal,
Romania, San Marino, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa,
South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Togo, Ukraine,
Uruguay, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and
Zimbabwe. The event will also involve contributions from theologians,
biblical scholars, doctors, scientists, diplomats and legal experts
of international standing.

The conference will begin with Mass in
St. Peter's Basilica, presided by Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah
Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council “Justice and Peace”,
and on the same morning Pope Francis will receive in audience all the
participants.

Msgr. Jean-Marie Mate Musivi
Mupendawatu explained that the Conference, taking as its starting
point the encyclical “Laudato si'”, will consider climate change
and the defence of biodiversity, information and technological
pollution, animal experimentation and genetic modification,
environmental stress and working medicine, pathologies linked to
climate change and international legislation on environmental issues.

He continued, “Special attention will
be dedicated to the theme of the challenges to be faced nowadays at
world summits: the right of access to clean drinking water, denied to
many; sanitation problems in urban areas and especially on the
outskirts of cities. Projects for development and business
initiatives, particularly in poor countries, have an impact on the
environment that is not infrequently neglected or underestimated. It
is therefore urgent to ensure that development plans respect life and
the environment, and are therefore far from the devastating aims of
mere profit”.

“Finally”, he added, “reflection
on the anthropological roots of the ecological crisis would be timely
in view of a hoped-for ecological conversion, deriving from an
increased awareness of the responsibilities of each person, in order
to inspire change in the direction of a rediscovered harmony between
man and the environment”.

Dr. Corra commented that a recent press
release from the World Health Organisation indicates that “few
risks affect health as much as air contamination, which poses by far
the most serious danger to health. It is responsible for one in every
eight deaths, is the cause of more than 80% of mortality in countries
with medium to low income, and has particularly worrying effects on
fertility and neurological development, which can manifest themselves
as behavioural disorders and impaired intellectual performance”.